You start out painting the background first. The light yellow color at the top and graduating down to the blue and lavender. A little orange was also mixed in but not enough to really notice. You let this dry. Then using a palette knife you put in the limbs, also using a brush whenever you feel the need. The palette knife keeps the limbs from looking too mechanical. You put the tip of the knife down and pull up on the knife very much like a rigger. The paint has to be wet but not runny.

You allow this to dry and then you sponge in or bristle brush in (which ever you prefer) the leaves starting with the light magenta and orange going to the darker magenta, then finally the deep green. I wanted the piece to be darker around the edges so as to give a feeling of looking up thru the center of the trees to see daylight but you don’t have to to this. The palette knife is used again, at the end to pull out some more small limbs. Pulling it across the wet paint to paint some limbs coming out from between some of the leaves.

You can use gouache, ink or acrylic if you want to lighten up some of the darker passages.